Boris Johnson’s MPs Refuse To Appear On TV Following Downing Street Party Leaked Video
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UK Government ministers turned down invitations by Britain’s main national broadcasters to defend Downing Street after footage insinuated that an alleged Christmas party took place that broke coronavirus regulations.
Despite Boris Johnson having denied that any rules were broken, the Met Police is now set to review the video, which sees spokesperson Angela Stratton jokingly refer to an alleged ‘[non] socially distanced’ gathering at Downing Street as a ‘fictional party,’ a ‘cheese and wine’ event, and later, a ‘business meeting’.
Health secretary Sajid Javid was set to appear on ITV, Sky and BBC this morning, December 8, however following the leaking of the footage, he cancelled.
Since the footage was released, no alternative representative for the government was offered to speak with the press this morning, The Independent reports.
Presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Nick Robinson, stated:
We were expecting to speak to the health secretary. That invitation was kept open after the video emerged last night, but the government chose to withdraw that interview with Sajid Javid.
We would like to put some of those questions to a minister this morning.
BBC Breakfast also commented on how ‘unusual’ it was that there was ‘nobody there today,’ with the slot having been part of the programme ‘at 7:30am pretty much every morning since the start of the pandemic’.
Meanwhile, ITV’s Good Morning Britain issued a challenge to Conservative MPs to ‘take [their] duty and answer to those who lost family members’ by coming to sit down in the ‘Westminster seat’.
Presenters stated:
We’ll take anyone. Anybody from the Conservative party, any MP who feels that it is their duty to address the nation, address their constituents, address the 140,000 people who lost family members in hospitals, followed the rules, couldn’t attend funerals, couldn’t be at hospital bedside while people partied in Downing Street.
Sky News‘ Kay Burley noted how ‘nobody accepted [the] invitation’ and that they hadn’t even ‘had a proper RSVP’.
Subsequently, many have been left wondering if there was simply no minister who was willing to defend the footage live on air, after The Independent reported the video was viewed as indefensible even by allies of Johnson.
However, at prime minister’s questions later today, Johnson is expected to be interrogated by a series of MPs, including Labour leader Keir Starmer, all of whom are expected to have a series of burning questions that are still yet to be answered.
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Topics: News, Boris Johnson, Coronavirus, Downing Street, Now, party, Sajid Javid, uk government
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